Chapter 24
iris
It must be the storm. She’d tried four times to call her sister this morning, and Amy’s phone had gone straight to voicemail every time. Iris had four bars herself, but she knew reception was always a bit sketchy up on the ridge where Amy lived.
‘Stop panicking,’ Jesse said. ‘The power’s out in half the town. Trees have brought lines down all over the state. It’s going to take some time to get things up and running again.’
‘That shouldn’t affect phone service—’
‘Of course it does.’ He got up from the kitchen table and put a new pod of Nespresso into the coffee machine.
‘A cell tower and fibre optic cables both need a power supply to operate. There’s usually a backup power supply like batteries or a generator, but they often don’t work when the power suddenly goes out. Have you tried texting her?’
‘Of course I have.’
‘So be patient. She’ll get back to you when she gets service again.’
Iris suddenly realised he had his car keys in his hand. ‘Hold on. Where are you going?’
‘I’ve got a meeting.’
‘In the middle of a hurricane?’
‘It’s just a bit of wind and rain. I won’t be long.’
‘Jesse! Can’t it wait?’
‘I have to run over a few things with the team about the new commercial purchase over in Barre,’ Jesse said.
‘We’ve had a couple things come back on the inspection, and one of my investors is getting cold feet.
I just need to hold his hand a bit, get things back on track.
He’s new to the game, still wetting his feet. Bit of an old woman, to be honest.’
Iris could always tell when her husband was lying to her. He went into just a bit too much detail, held her eye just a fraction too long.
Jesse was a loving husband and a wonderful father.
He gave his time, talent and treasure to the school, and was always the first to dig deep into his pockets for a good cause.
But he was a successful, rich businessman, and Iris had yet to meet a successful, rich businessman whose dealings hadn’t sometimes strayed into an ethically grey zone.
Occasionally one or two of Jesse’s less savoury associates had ended up in legal hot water, but somehow her husband always managed to land butter-side up.
Iris had plenty of faults, but she wasn’t a hypocrite.
She wasn’t one of those wives who enjoyed the Tiffany bangles and open-topped sports cars and elite club memberships and pretended they had no idea where it all came from.
She’d gone into this marriage with her eyes wide open.
But she also knew her husband was a fundamentally good man.
He’d never hurt anyone. If he used his mayoral office to wave through a few land deals for his cronies, she could live with it.
But for her own peace of mind, she didn’t want to know the details.
Her phone beeped with an incoming text, but when she snatched it up, it was from Kate Walker, not her sister.
School closed today.
Plan B for prom tomorrow?
Shit. Think we’ll have to cancel?
lake’s at flood stage
don’t see any option.
thoughts?
can’t get hold of Amy
let me come back to u
talk soon xx
Iris pulled up Amy’s number and texted her again. This time, she saw three grey dots appear as her sister started to reply, and felt an unexpected whoosh of relief. She hadn’t realised until now how anxious she’d been.
And then the three dots disappeared.
She waited a few moments, but the screen stayed silent.
Her unease coalesced into a tight, hard knot of fear. Jesse could tell her she was over-reacting all he liked, but she knew something was wrong.
With sudden decisiveness, she slid her bare feet into the trodden-down trainers she kept by the kitchen door and grabbed her rain jacket.
The kids were still in bed, treating the unexpected day off school like a winter snow day, so she sent them both a quick text telling them on no account to leave the house, and went into the garage.
Five minutes into the drive to Amy’s, she wished she’d gone one step further and hidden Finn’s car keys. She didn’t want her son to be tempted to drive in weather like this.
Tree limbs were down all over the roads.
The main street alongside the Stowebury River had flooded, and she had to double back using the old logging roads over Mount Tester to get to Amy’s house.
Even with the windshield wipers on as fast as they’d go, it was hard to see where she was going, like driving through a car wash.
Twice she stopped and mounted the muddy verge to get around sections of flooded road, not wanting to risk what might be hidden beneath the murky water.
Football fields and baseball diamonds had turned into lakes; the lake itself was close to the highest she’d ever seen it.
And that was before the run-off from all this rainwater drained into it.
She was relieved when she reached Amy’s house safely. She parked as close to the covered porch as she could, but even so, she was soaked to the skin by the time she’d run the ten feet to the front door.
She rang the doorbell, but Amy didn’t answer.
Mac’s truck wasn’t outside; she guessed he was down at the marina.
He must be worried about getting everything shipshape in time for the prom.
But she could see through the garage window that Amy’s car was still here, and her sister couldn’t have walked anywhere in weather like this.
She banged on the door again.
Still no answer. Iris had a spare key for emergencies – if this wasn’t an emergency, she didn’t know what was – so she rang the doorbell one more time, and then let herself in.
The kitchen was pristine, other than a single dirty coffee mug in the sink.
‘Amy?’ Iris called.
Silence.
She checked each room downstairs, but there was no sign of her sister. Eventually, she found her way up to Amy and Mac’s bedroom.
The door was shut, and despite herself, she hesitated. Maybe Amy hadn’t answered because she was asleep. Maybe she was in the shower.
She thought of the three grey dots appearing and disappearing, and she opened the door.
The bed was neatly made, not that that meant anything; the apocalypse could be upon them and Amy would tell the four horsemen to wait a moment while she straightened the duvet.
Her sister’s robe was in its usual place on its hook on the back of the door.
In the bathroom, a damp towel was folded carefully on the rail, and two toothbrushes were charging on their stands on either side of the sink, like sentries.
Everything looked exactly as it should do.
And something was terribly wrong.